After a strong 2018, 2019 wasn’t as kind to Parker Meadows. What happened?
- Born: November 2, 1999
- B/T: L/R
- 6’5″, 205-lbs
- Drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 2nd round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from Grayson HS (Loganville, GA)
The Numbers
His raw numbers are listed above courtesy of baseball-reference.com. Let’s aggregate by year then focus on the important numbers for minor leaguers:
Parker had a pretty good first professional season at Rookie ball, and then at A-. The strikeouts were high, but he took walks, showed power, and got on base. All at 18.
2019 was a different story. The power was cut in half, and the Hard% shows that lack of power was legit. His on-base ability plummeted too, and since his walk rate stayed the same and his strikeout rate actually improved, for his on-base to drop like that means the hits were not falling in. He was probably unlucky.
The good news from this down year was that his walk rate held, and the strikeouts dropped into Fair territory, while he continued to show a bit of speed.
While he didn’t put up good batting lines against anyone at Class A, this LHB liked hitting against lefties just a bit better than righties. Not a huge difference.
This is pull power in a chart. Every single home run is out to right field. At least the doubles and singles are spread out to all fields.
Notice his career OPS is around .650? Usually top prospects are in the .800 range, so the lack of power, combined with his low on-base season really sank his OPS to the point late in the season where it almost dipped below .500!
The Scouts
- Rotowire: #363 on their Top 400.
- BaseballHQ: Not on their Top 100.
- Fangraphs: Not on their Top 120.
- Fantasy Six Pack: #736 on their dynasty list.
- Prospects365: Not on Ray Butler’s Top 200.
- Imaginary Brick Wall: #166 on the Top 487.
- Fantrax: #223 on the Top 250.
Warnings
He’s 6’5″ and weighs just 205 pounds, so the frame is there to add weight and to add power. That is what the scouts expect to happen, but until the power shows up, it hasn’t happened.
Let’s see that OBP improve when he gets to High-A and Double-A. Speed doesn’t help if you cannot get on base.
Conclusion
He was just a teenager out of high school the past two years, so this is all about projection with Meadows. The younger brother of Austin, he has athleticism and promise. He already is showing a decent batting eye, and that should lead to better on-base numbers.
But Parker is one of those guys who will take time. Time to fill out. Time to add muscle. Time to build opposite field power. Time to fulfill promise. Until then, that’s all it is: potential.
If you can afford to wait, he can help your team eventually. Be patient.